GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch, apparently still gloating over his machine’s knockout of former potential primary challenger Rep. Jason Chaffetz, told a Utah TV station that he wouldn’t rule out a 2018 bid for an 8th term in the U.S. Senate.

Looks like he’s confident he’ll be crowned for his 7th without any opposition. That’s not what I’m hearing from grass-roots Tea Party folks in Utah who haven’t given up the fight for a fresh, conservative face after nearly 40 years of Hatch’s service as a “bipartisan” tool for bigger government. More on that soon.

Meanwhile, one of Hatch’s dedicated sycophants has penned a nearly 600-page tome lauding his long, long, long Beltway career.

Our quote of the morning comes from the Club for Growth’s response to the ridiculous attempts to paint Hatch as a Tea Party vanguard.

Ditto this x 1,000:

“No amount of desperate, election-year hagiography can hide Orrin Hatch’s record,” Club for Growth spokesman Barney Keller said, referring to a word that means an idolizing biography. “I suspect conservatives in Utah will find fiction novels about Orrin Hatch’s record more useful as kindling than bedside reading.”